Falling Story
Matthew Ryan Fischer
Riley was falling. He took a step off the curb and into the street
and he ended up falling. Not towards the ground, not towards the street, or into
traffic, but into something far more strange and unexplained. Riley fell and
didn’t stop falling. He didn’t hit the ground. There was nothing to hit. He
fell and fell right through.
Riley blinked and he was awake in his bed. A rush of nervous
energy flooded his system. He felt a great deal of anxiety but wasn’t sure what
about. He vaguely had some recollection of a sense of foreboding and
unavoidable dread. Riley rolled over towards the side of the bed. He sat up and
put his feet down to the floor, about to stand up, but instead of standing, his
feet went right through the floor and he fell. His body followed along as if
there was no floor at all. He fell through the house, the ground and the
Earth’s rocky mantle like it was nothing.
Riley opened his mouth to scream and realized he was standing in a
crowd of people at an art museum. They were looking at a series of prints where
many different artists made their own interpretations based on the same theme.
Riley didn’t scream. Instead he looked at the pictures and became lost in their
similarities and differences. On some level, no matter how different they were,
there was a basic common denominator. Riley wasn’t sure why, but that took his
mind of what had been occurring. Later, at an open bar reception, the crowd
gathered to discuss what they had seen and what their feelings were on the
various subjects. Riley didn’t know anyone, so he stood off to one side of the
room and drank his wine. He leaned back against the wall, and then there was no
wall, and he was on his way tumbling down.
Riley took a deep breath and calmed his beating heart. His mind
was racing out of control. Nothing made sense. He wasn’t sure where he was or
what was going on. He wanted to run, but didn’t know where. He wanted to be
back at his home again in bed where things made sense.
Riley was lost in time and space, somewhere beyond a dimensional
rift. There were colors and stars and darkness and unperceivable things that
could see and understand. There was an energy that flowed between him and
everything else and all around. It was an interconnectedness that Riley didn’t
have words or comprehension for. He was just there. He floated. Drifted. It was
a sort of calm – like resting in silent and still water. Riley closed his eyes
and relaxed and let himself go.
Drifting, he passed through his life. Drifting, he made his way in
and out of consciousness and in and out of people’s lives. He drifted through
time and space and ended up back where he had been. He floated above his bed,
looking down, longing to be there again. And then he dropped.
Riley fell. He fell hard and fast and often and for long periods
of time. He didn’t understand it. He fell over and over and over. It was like a
twisted game he had no control over. Riley was lost. He was gone.
Riley was asleep. He woke up startled and disheveled. His head
hurt and he was confused, momentarily unsure of where or who he was. The room
cleared and his mind straightened out. He was awake. In his home. In his bed.
He had been having nightmares, but the nightmares were over. Riley instantly
felt very silly. He was worked up and worrying about nothing. Everything was
okay.
Riley got out of bed and stood up. He stretched and could feel his
tired and achy muscles loosening. He shook his head and opened his eyes wide.
He was still tired, but was going to force himself to get to work.
Then suddenly the floor opened up and swallowed him. Riley was
gone, instantly. The universe, in a wild and unpredictable moment, took him
away, like he had never been there to begin with. Riley was the victim of
capricious whim and had the unfortunate fate of unluckily being in the wrong
place at exactly the wrong time. Riley fell, but the universe didn’t think
twice about it.
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